We are still just about in Touristville at the southern end of Edgware Road, as evidenced by a carousel of royal postcards. But this is pretty much as far as most workaday tourists will venture. As the Arabic script sandwich boards and estate agent windows suggest, we are now entering what came to be known as 'Little Beirut'. Arabs have descended on Edgware Road since the end of the 19th century and have long since transformed it into one of central London's most characterful thoroughfares — an infinitely more interesting pavement to pound than nearby Oxford Street or Tottenham Court Road. Suddenly the road has turned into something different. The clink of rioja glasses, as people sit out on the terrace-straddling terrace of Cafe Laville. The gentle slosh of water as boats ply the canal.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It is such a unique story set between 1980s and the present. Think family dramas with an underlying unresolved mystery.Yet it starts with a daughter hoping to meet a father who never appears and how we unravel where he went after he left his wife and daughter Alia. Are you worried about your wedding dress post D-day celebration in Edgware Road? If you are, then, the first thing that you need to do is calm down and sign up for wedding dress cleaning services in Edgware Road at Hello Laundry. The wedding dress dry cleaners of our platform will wash your wedding dress and remove all kinds of stains or marks with mild liquid detergent soap to make the bridal gown clean and tidy. I liked Khalid’s comparison of the Irish Catholics and Sufis as “their own little people”. An Irish pub seems an odd place for him to feel at home, but then he’s an odd sort of fellow. I had no idea that the start of this book would lead to a plot of international fraud, corruption and one of the biggest financial scandals of the 1980s

I loved how the chapters intertwined from one timeline to another to keep the suspension and mystery of what happened to Khalid constantly going. The story itself is very beautifully written and at times with such detailed descriptions, I felt like I was in the book with those characters, looking at the world the way they saw it, living their life and feeling the emotions they felt. Honestly, not many books make me feel like I am in the story together with the characters, and that is one of the things that made this book really stand out for me. The novel, which Khan has described as a love letter to London, pursues two parallel narratives, the first concerning a wonderfully vibrant character Khalid Quraishi, who is a croupier for Hugh Hefner’s Playboy casino in London, while his Pakistan-based parents still think he’s pursuing an engineering degree at Imperial.I must note that Alia’s character left a big impression on me because she grew so much as a character as the book progressed. As she learned more about her family, her father and the past, she found a sense of belonging and finally realised who she really is and for me, that is one of many strong messages that this book was trying to convey to the readers. We come to Nawras, an emporium peddling luxury chocolates and dates — as well as glitzy trinkets to serve them from. Behind the till, Hannane tells us that it is largely customers from the Middle East who shop here. In this heat, juices and ice cream are wheeled out the front of the shop too. Edgware Road is an anomaly of independent shops peppered in with giants, rather than the other way around. So you'll find the odd Tesco and Costa Coffee rubbing shoulders rather nervously, with far more interesting outlets. Firstly, I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

But Khalid’s story also displays youth and how the world actually is your oyster for a while, and there really is jam tomorrow; and that such truths can in rare circumstances be multiplied by emigration, where some combination of displacement and survival instinct can result in meteoric climbing, both social as well as financial. Soon after, we find this peaceful, but oddly anonymous, fenced off garden. Whose is it? What's it all about? Answers on a postcard. You’ll find it so easy to relax in your air-conditioned double or family room. Feel invigorated in the power shower in your en-suite bathroom using the complimentary toiletries before putting your feet up in front of your flat-screen TV. The 24-hour reception staff are happy to help any time of the day. Start your morning the right way with an Italian coffee and breakfast in our coffee lounge, or stop off for a cake when you need a pit stop throughout the day. Two gentlemen are all to happy to pose for a photo, as they plough through cokes, fresh mango and orange pieces, and a sweet shiha pipe each.

Dr Yasmin Khan (St Peter’s, 1996) is a historian of British India and Associate Professor of History at Kellogg College, Oxford.